Fireworks
by Fiona3210
Summary: A Fourth of July one shot. Alfred is missing from a meeting, so Ludwig send Arthur and Matthew to find him. Meanwhile, Alfred is enjoying his birthday, alone. Happy -belated- Birthday Alfred!


In a room, a person sighed. They had forgotten _again_. And it wasn't like some silly get together or anything. No they had forgotten his _birthday_. Just like last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and… you know what? They had forgotten _every single year_. So maybe it stung Alfred Jones just a little bit when even his own brother, Matthew Williams, forgot about his birthday. Again. The ironic part was, most people forgot that Matthew even existed, but still remembered his special day. It was the exact opposite for Alfred. Alfred sighed and, figuring that no one was going to bother him today, went out for a walk. Of course, maybe he had forgotten something. Something that involved the world and a meeting.

…

As Alfred was walking around town, a meeting was being held only a few blocks away.

"Is it just me, or is it awfully quiet today?" a British gentleman, Arthur Kirkland, commented.

"Yes, it is quiet," a Japanese man, Kiku Honda (Honda Kiku to eastern folks) agreed. When they said awfully quiet, they meant besides the fights and such that usually broke out.

"Vell, is everybody here?" Ludwig Beilschmidt, a German man, joined in.

"Ve, I'm here!" the happy-go-lucky Italian Feliciano Vargas exclaimed.

"Everybody already knows that, fratello!" Feliciano's twin brother, Lovino Vargas, yelled.

"Ze awesome me is awesomely here," Ludwig's elder brother, Gilbert Beilschmidt stated.

"Ohonhonhonhonhon, I am obviously here, Rosbif," the Frenchman, Francis Bonnefoy, flourished to Arthur.

"Shut up, frog! We weren't talking about you!" Arthur screamed at Francis.

"I am _aqui, si_? (here, yes?)" Antonio Carriedo, a Spaniard asked.

"I'm here-aru," Yao Wang, (Wang Yao to the east) who's Chinese, said.

"I'm here," Matthew Williams said in an almost silent voice.

"Alfred isn't here, da?" the Russian Ivan Braginsky commented. Nobody wanted to sit next to him, because he was wearing his creepy smile.

"No wonder it's so bloody quiet," Arthur muttered.

"Does anyvone have an idea of vhere Alfred vent?" Ludwig interrogated. Feliciano raised his hand. "Feliciano?"

"Maybe he went to get some PASTA!" Feliciano exclaimed happily. Lovino bopped him upside the head, obviously trying to knock some sense into his twin. Matthew raised his hand.

"No vone has any ozer ideas?" Ludwig asked the group, not noticing Matthew's raised hand. The room fell silent.

"I might know," Matthew said quietly. Everyone turned to look at him.

"Oh, Alfred, when-a did you-a get here?" Feliciano questioned. Matthew was slightly annoyed, but he got that a lot considering the two were twins.

"I'm Matthew Ma-at-thew!" Matthew exaggerated.

"So where the bloody hell is Alfred! He was supposed to be here an hour ago!" Arthur yelled, annoyed at the amount of time they were wasting. Not like they ever got anything done anyway. To be honest, most meetings contained Kiku agreeing with everything Alfred said, Francis and Arthur fighting, Lovino yelling at Antonio, Ludwig trying to knock some sense into Feliciano, Feliciano talking about pasta, Alfred joining Arthur in beating up Francis, Matthew being ignored, Gilbert acting 'awesome' and trying to convince Elizabeta of that fact, Heracles sleeping, Ivan being creepy, Basch trying to convince Kiku that he should make his own choices instead of agreeing with everything Alfred says, Yao working on trade, Natalia trying to get Ivan to date her, Ivan hiding behind Iruyna because of Natalia, Sadik trying to wake up Heracles, Erika staying close to and mimicking her big brother Basch, Anri being upset at the way her older brother Govert only focused on making money, Feliks hanging out with Toris, Eduard updating his blog, Roderich working on music, Ralph trying to convince somebody to go on an adventure with him, Peter trying to get recognized by his older brother Arthur, and eventually Ludwig shouting everybody into silence from getting so annoyed at the previous things listed. None of that is currently important right now, though.

"Home, probably," Matthew said quietly. "Asleep likely."

"Zen Matzew and Arzur vill go and vake Alfred up and bring him here," Ludwig planned.

"Wha-! Why do I have to wake that bloody git up!" Arthur shouted furiously.

"Because I said so," Ludwig answered matter-of-factly. "And you eizer go vith Matzew or you go vith Francis. Ve're clear, ja?" Grumbling to himself about 'stupid Americans', Arthur practically dragged Matthew out the door behind him.

…

Arthur and Matthew walked up to Alfred's house. Taped onto the door was a note. Matthew read it aloud.

"Out for a walk. Be back tonight. Alfred," Matthew read.

"Well this is just great. Who knows where that idiot could be. C'mon Matthew, we best be heading back to the meeting," Arthur said, extremely annoyed.

"We can't go back without Alfred. Ludwig would kill us," Matthew pointed out.

"Well, where do you think he is, then?" Arthur asked.

"I might have an idea," Matthew said, smiling.

…

The park. Out of all the places Alfred could be, it was the park. Arthur would never have guessed, but Matthew had. As Matthew parked his van, they could already see Alfred, just relaxing on a park bench. Arthur was the first to reach Alfred and greeted him by grabbing his arm and attempting to drag the 19-year-old off. Luckily, Alfred was naturally strong, and easily yanked his arm out of the Brit's grasp.

"Hiya, Artie. Whatcha doing here?" Alfred asked.

"First of all, my name is Arthur, not Artie. Secondly, you are currently delaying a very important meeting," Arthur told him, struggling to not just outright yell at the American.

"Figures. Why else would they be here on my birthday?" Alfred said, speaking to the atmosphere.

"What?" Arthur and newly arrived Matthew asked in unison.

"Never mind. I'll come, but I'll have to be gone before dusk," Alfred responded, standing up. The trio packed into Matthew's van, and soon all three were walking through the door, Arthur with a smug look on his face.

"Alfred, vhere vere you! Ve had to delay ze meeting because of your lateness!" Ludwig shouted, catching everyone's attention.

"Sorry. I guess I forgot," Alfred said, sitting.

"Awesome, Alfred! You really got my bruder mad zis time," Gilbert said, smiling and high-fiving Alfred and Simon Densen. There were called the 'Awesome Trio' for a reason, after all.

"I aim to please," Alfred said. "But I really did forget."

"Who cares? That was still really awesome! Did you see Ludwig's face? It was as red as one of Antonio's tomatoes!" Simon exclaimed, before bursting out in laughter.

"Heh, I guess you're right," Alfred replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"'You guess'? Nien, you know ve're right," Gilbert corrected. None of them noticed the eerie shadow creeping up on them.

"Здравствуйте! Там (Hello there). Become one with Mother Russia, da?" Ivan said creepily, smiling at them with that same terrifying smile.

"The Soviet Union fell years ago, Ivan," Alfred reminded him. Ivan looked surprised for a second.

"Нет (No), it is merely sleeping. The Soviet Union will rise again," Ivan stated, completely sure that what he was saying was the truth.

"Whatever," Alfred said. He was the only one who could face the Russian. Everybody else was terrified of him. Well, everybody besides his sisters, that is. He observed the chaos that was the meeting. "What are we all even here for?" Alfred asked, rising. Everybody fell silent at this. What were they all here for? "Okay, since nobody has an answer, I say this meeting is dismissed."

"Vait a second, vho gave you permission to dismiss ze meeting?" Ludwig asked. He really hated it when people messed up his schedule.

"I did. Now if you don't mind, I have a special place to be today." After stating this, Alfred left. Soon many others followed until the only ones left were Kiku, Ludwig, Feliciano, Arthur, Matthew, Francis, Ivan, and Yao.

"I wonder where that bloody fool went," Arthur said, breaking the silence.

"Ohonhonhonhonhon, isn't it obvious? Alfred is going to see his special somebody," Francis said, smiling. Being from the country of love, this was expected.

"Or maybe he went to get some more pasta!" Feliciano exclaimed. Ludwig sighed. Matthew noticed a piece of paper where Alfred's spot was.

"Guys," he said.

"I find that pretty unlikely, Francis," Arthur told Francis.

"Feliciano, how many times do ve have to go over zis? Not everybody leaves someplace to get pasta. Zere are ozer foods, you know," Ludwig scolded Feliciano.

"Hai (yes). Onigri are dericious foods too," Kiku added.

"Guys," Matthew repeated.

"Da, but vodka's better," Ivan commented.

"Nien, beer's best," Ludwig contradicted.

"Arthur, I know about love. Alfred _is _going to see his crush," Francis told Arthur with a smirk. A fight was soon started between the two. Fed up with it all, Matthew lost his cool for a second.

"GUYS!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. All eyes turned to stare at him, as if noticing him for the first time.

"What is it-aru?" China asked.

"I KNOW WHERE ALFRED IS GOING!" Matthew screamed.

"Matthew-chan, can you prease not shout," Kiku said, rubbing his ear.

"I'm sorry, but you guys wouldn't listen. Anyway, Alfred is going to see the fireworks tonight," Matthew said in a single breath.

"What fireworks?" Arthur asked him.

"The Fourth of July fireworks. It says so on this flyer," Matthew held out the flyer for all to see.

"Then let's go see them! I bet they're going to be really pretty, Doitsu!" Feliciano exclaimed. Everybody agreed, and it was a date.

…

That evening, eight people from different countries sat together in the park. The fireworks were about to start when a ninth figure noticed them and quickly walked over.

"Hey, dudes," Alfred greeted, taking a seat between his brother and Arthur. The others all gave their greetings as the fireworks began. They were all awestruck by the display of colors and patterns. By the end of the show, the others had all managed to remember something else that was on the flyer. A hand written note. Nodding to each other, an unspoken message passed between them. The G8 managed to work together for one sentence.

"Happy birthday Alfred."

**I had this finished yesterday, but I couldn't get it up until today. Since I only used human names, here's who everyone is in order of appearance.**

**1. Alfred Jones= America**

**2. Matthew Williams=Canada**

**3. Arthur Kirkland= England **

**4. Kiku Honda (Honda Kiku)= Japan **

**5. Ludwig Beilschmidt= Germany**

**6. Feliciano Vargas= Italy**

**7. Lovino Vargas= Romano**

**8. Gilbert Beilschmidt= Prussia**

**9. Francis Bonnefoy= France**

**10. Antonio Carriedo= Spain**

**11. Yao Wang, (Wang Yao)= China**

**12. Ivan Braginsky= Russia**

**13. Elizabeta= Hungary**

**14. Heracles= Greece**

**15. Basch= Switzerland**

**16. Natalia= Belarus**

**17. Iruyna= Ukraine**

**18. Sadik= Turkey**

**19. Erika= Liechtenstein **

**20. Anri= Belgium**

**21. Govert= Netherlands**

**22. Feliks= Poland**

**23. Toris= Lithuania**

**24. Eduard= Estonia**

**25. Roderich= Austria**

**26. Ralph= Australia**

**27. Peter= Sealand **

**28. Simon Densen= Denmark**

**That is a lot of people. Happy belated birthday Alfred!**


End file.
